HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING: Hopewell takes fourth straight MCT

ROBBINSVILLE — The Mercer County Tournament championships just keep on coming for the Hopewell Valley wrestling team and the very stark reality for the rest of the county is there are no signs its domination will stop soon.

Destroying the competition from start to finish, Hopewell won its fourth straight and fifth MCT title in the last six years with a whopping 248.5 points. Steinert was a distant second with 172 points. Hopewell had just two individual champs in Eric Barbera (160) and Mike Markulec (220), but it didn’t matter because it placed 12 wrestlers in the semifinals and seven in the finals.

“We wanted to place all 14 in the semifinals, but our goal was to come here and be intense,’’ said Markulec, who improved to 26-0 by cruising through his bracket for his second MCT title. “It was a total team effort. Now we are looking forward to sectionals.’’

Hopewell will attempt to become just the third Mercer team to reach groups when it competes in the sectionals next week. In the meantime, it can savor another MCT title that featured its outstanding depth.

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A classic example of this is Hopewell 152-pounder Gun Hee Lee. A year ago, Lee was 0-3 on the varsity level. This year he came from out of nowhere to earn the No. 2 seed and advance to the finals before coming up short against Steinert’s Anthony Kubish, 8-2.

The sweetest win for Hopewell came from Barbera, who avenged a one-point loss from the previous week by nipping David Steward of Robbinsville, 5-4, with a reversal at the edge of the circle at the final buzzer. Some people might not remember this, but Barbera was also an MCT champion two years ago.

“I’m proud of this team,’’ said Hopewell coach Mario Harpel. “In the finals we ran into some real tough wrestlers, but I thought we took it about as far as we could. We have some great kids who really worked hard to earn this.’’

Speaking of repeat winners, Lawrence’s Mike Jennings (138) and Trenton’s Maazhiah Bethea (145) both won their third straight MCT titles and will attempt to join an exclusive group of four-time champs next year. Neither was challenged in the finals, which really only had one or two competitive bouts.

The winner of The Trentonian’s Outstanding Wrestler award was Lawrenceville 195-pounder Matt Apuzzi, who impressed by pinning Steinert’s formerly undefeated River Ullrich in the semis and then sticking Allentown’s Frank Juba in the first period of the final. The Lawrencenville junior is now 18-1.

Steinert led the way with four individual champions. They were standout freshman Brandon Cray (22-2 at 106), Tyler Beers (20-4 at 126), Kubish (22-3) and Matt McDonald (19-4 at 170).

In addition to Hopewell Valley, Hightstown and Lawrence each had two champions. As expected, the Rams got gold from undefeated Joey DeCristofaro at 182 pounds. What wasn’t so expected was the first-place showing of Hightstown 120-pounder Kevin Medina, who beat Lawrence’s Mujahid Ewell of Lawrence in the finals, 6-4.

This was the wildest bracket of the tourney because of two “upsets’’ in the semis. In those bouts, Ewell beat defending MCT champion Chris Tan of Robbinsville, 4-3, and Medina pinned Lawrenceville’s Pat McLaughlin in 4:20.

Amazingly, Medina was losing to McLaughlin by the score of 14-0 prior to his sudden reversal and pin.

Winning a second MCT title for Lawrence was Gordon Wolf at 132 pounds. Now 24-0 on the year and ranked sixth in the state by The Trentonian, Wolfwon with ease and will go for a third MCT crown next year.

The winner of the heavyweight class was Robbinsville’s Tyler Gildner, who beat Nottingham’s Reggie Charles, 1-0, with a third-period rideout. Gildner is now 24-3 and should be part of an outstanding group at Region VII, which currently includes three of the top six ranked heavyweights in the state.